Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

EDUCATION Arts council in schools plea

Lucy Ward
Friday 11 July 1997 18:02 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Pupils should have compulsory lessons in the arts from the time they arrive in school at five to the minimum leaving age at 16, the Arts Council said yesterday.

Launching its new education and training policy, the council said it was wrong that mandatory study of subjects such as drama, music, dance and the visual arts should stop at 14, as at present.

Arts leaders want a review of the national curriculum, due in 2000, to place arts subjects firmly on the school timetable. Schools should be encouraged to have a formal arts policy and appoint a governor to have special responsibility for arts training, and teacher training should equip staff to teach the subject, the council says. In practice, schools are likely to subscribe to the spirit of the policy but may not be willing to put all its recommendations into practice. Teachers already feel the national curriculum is over-crowded, leaving them too little flexibility. Lucy Ward

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in